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Total Solar Eclipse. A Once In A Lifetime Event. August 21, 2017

August 21, 2017 From 10 am – 4 pm

What Is a Total Solar Eclipse?

Total solar eclipses occur when the New Moon comes between the Sun and Earth and casts the darkest part of its shadow, the umbra, on Earth. A full solar eclipse, known as totality, is almost as dark as night.

Not Total Everywhere

Eclipses are normally named after their darkest phase. If a solar eclipse is total at any point on Earth, it is called a total solar eclipse, even though it’s seen as a partial solar eclipsein most areas.

However, there is an exception, the hybrid solar eclipse. This type of eclipse is also known as an annular-total eclipse because it changes from an annular to a total solar eclipse, and/or vice versa, along its path.

Complete Solar Eclipse Has 5 Phases

There are 5 stages in a total solar eclipse:

Partial eclipse begins (1st contact): The Moon starts becoming visible over the Sun’s disk. The Sun looks as if a bite has been taken from it.

Total eclipse begins (2nd contact): The entire disk of the Sun is covered by the Moon. Observers in the path of the Moon’s umbra may be able to see Baily’s beads and the diamond ring effect, just before totality.

Totality and maximum eclipse: The Moon completely covers the disk of the Sun. Only the Sun’s corona is visible. This is the most dramatic stage of a total solar eclipse. At this time, the sky goes dark, temperatures can fall, and birds and animals often go quiet. The midpoint of time of totality is known as the maximum point of the eclipse. Observers in the path of the Moon’s umbra may be able to see Baily’s beads and the diamond ring effect, just after totality ends.

Partial eclipse ends (4th contact): The Moon stops overlapping the Sun’s disk. The eclipse ends at this stage in this location.

Protect Your Eyes!

Never look directly at the Sun, eclipsed or otherwise, without proper protective eyewear. The Sun’s UV radiation can burn the retinas in your eyes, and cause permanent damage or even blindness.

To watch a solar eclipse safely, wear protective eclipse glasses or project an image of the eclipsed Sun using a pinhole projector.

Only Safe during Full Eclipse

It is safe to view a fully eclipsed Sun, totality, with the naked eye. It is also safe to observe totality through cameras, telescopes or binoculars without any special filters. However, naked eye observations MUST NOT begin until Baily’s beads have completely disappeared (see below). Also, naked eye observations MUST finish before Baily’s beads reappear at the end of totality. Make sure you know how long totality will last at your location.

Unique Sights around Totality

Shadow bands: About 1 minute before totality, moving wavy lines of alternating light and dark can be seen on the ground and along walls. These shadow bands are the result of Earth’s turbulent atmosphere refracting the last rays of sunlight.

Diamond ring: Seen about 10 to 15 seconds before and after totality, the solar corona (the outer atmosphere of the sun) becomes visible; seen together with a single jewel of light from the sun, this creates a diamond ring effect.

The Sun’s corona: As the diamond ring fades, the Sun’s corona becomes more prominent and is visible as a faint ring of rays surrounding the silhouetted Moon. The corona is the outermost layer of the Sun’s atmosphere, and it is around 200–300 times hotter than the Sun’s surface. The corona’s temperature can reach over 1 million °C (1.8 million °F).

Baily’s beads: About 5 seconds before totality, Baily’s beads appear. They are little bead-like blobs of light at the edge of the Moon. They are created because gaps in the mountains and valleys on the Moon’s surface allow sunlight to pass through in some places but not others.

The Sun’s chromosphere: A lower layer of the Sun’s atmosphere, the chromosphere, gives out a reddish glow which can only be seen for a few seconds after totality sets in.

The phenomena then repeat in reverse order:

Baily’s beads: The beads grow and merge into a crescent as the Moon continues to move away.

Diamond ring and corona: As the diamond ring grows brighter, the corona fades.

Shadow bands: The moving wavy lines reappear on the ground shortly before the crescent Sun becomes visible again and nature recovers.

The Science of Total Solar Eclipses

The Sun, Moon, and Earth are aligned

Only those located in the path of the Moon’s full shadow, its umbra, can see a total solar eclipse. The Moon’s umbra travels eastward at about 1,700 km/h (1,056 mph).

A total solar eclipse can last for several hours. Totality can range from a few seconds to 7.5 minutes. The longest total solar eclipse of the 21st century took place on July 22, 2009when the totality lasted 6 minutes and 39 seconds.

Not Every New Moon Night

Total solar eclipse infographic. Click image for full version.

The Moon’s orbital path around Earth is inclined at an angle of approximately 5° to Earth’s orbital plane (ecliptic) around the Sun. The points where the 2 orbital planes meet are called lunar nodes. Solar eclipses occur only when a New Moon takes place near a lunar node, 2—5 times a year.

Near Lunar Perigee

The Moon’s path around Earth is elliptical, with one side of the orbit closer to Earth than the other. The side closest to Earth is called the perigee and the side farthest from Earth is known as the apogee.

Earth’s orbit around the Sun is also elliptical, with the Sun closer to one end, the perihelion of the orbit than the other aphelion.

Earth’s and the Moon’s elliptical orbits mean that Earth’s distance from the Sun and the Moon’s distance from Earth varies throughout the year. It also means that from Earth, the Sun’s and Moon’s apparent sizes change during the year.

When the Moon is about 400 times closer to Earth than the Sun, the Moon’s and the Sun’s apparent sizes roughly match. Because of this, total eclipses of the Sun can only occur when the Moon is near perigee – it is the only time when the disk of the Moon looks big enough to cover the entire disk of the Sun.